Venom is Snake Oil
It is the responsibility of patriots in both parties to tone down the rhetoric and be substantive.
I probably have written about this before in one way or another but want to beat the drum once more. Or is it sending up another flare?
We really don’t have to claim the other Party contains a majority of people who will overthrow everything good and right about our country. We don’t have to do this in order to be a member in good standing of our own party.
Ok. You may think I’ve blundered into the quicksand of “equivalency.” I’m not however, in my own mind, sinking. We can all go on believing that we have better ideas than “they” have, and that we are not by some measure “as extreme,” while realizing that far too many on both sides of the partisan divide have crossed over the line.
What line? Just the ill-defined space between reasonable concern over the policies of the “other” and irrational fear.
By the way, I doubt very much that many political professionals believe the fear mongering they think is required of them in order to stay on the field and keep playing the game.
“Cultural Marxism?” Not even, by a stretch, a coherent phrase. Most Marxists were social conservatives. I’ll give you a few left intellectuals in Paris, perhaps. And all, most, a lot, of Republicans, “fascists,” and against democracy? They think they will win elections. They, like so many good partisans before, can’t believe that they are not in the majority.
But what we do need on both sides of the aisle is rational discourse, discovery of the extent and nature of real policy disagreements and efforts to find common ground when possible, and, when not, never letting our “victories” keep us from a careful examination of the costs and benefits of our actions, or never dismissing substantive criticism or new and confounding information.
"I venture to suggest that patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime."--Adlai E. Stevenson II
All the more reason why we must try and provide our friends with spaces for just such conversations. Stilll, I confess, as I said in a blog today, 23rd, that we need place our hopes on coming generations and the ability of our present educational system, however vulnerable and fragile it is, to see us through.
A number of forces have robbed us of third places, putting us in bubbles. It might also be better to realize that followers follow and leaders are the leaders. They are the one's who matter. It still seems farfetched to expect our elite cabal will stop ritual adrenochrome drinking and focus on finding common ground.